


My Heart Skips a Beat For You

by TurkeyzHoe



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Also danny’s Gay and has a fat crush on dash, Also the major character death warning is about Jack...yah, Danny loves that, Danny still has powers, Dash is the new kid and is anxious Af and dissociates sometimes, M/M, Slow Burn, Strippers & Strip Clubs, also Danny said fuck school lives!, and .... he’s still Phantom!, danny’s a stripper to support his family, dash likes Danny But is scared of his own feelings, he’s a little slutty but in a tasteful way, he’s shy too
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-01
Updated: 2019-03-01
Packaged: 2019-11-07 09:59:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17958362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TurkeyzHoe/pseuds/TurkeyzHoe
Summary: Danny’s father died, and after that his life had changed. With his mother at the risk of being in debt, he does what it takes to get the money they need. Work makes his grades drop, but luckily it’s only the beginning of the school year. A smart, hot new kid comes to his rescue and can tutor and keep him from failing.





	My Heart Skips a Beat For You

1

There weren’t bright enough lights around him where he would feel nervous about his audience. The dim lighting from the pink LED strip lights gave him comfort and confidence since there was no way to distinct the faces staring at his movements with such intensity. That was, unless, he decided to do some floor work. He usually saved that for when he really desperately needed the money, and speaking of, he remembered the $400 he needed before the house’s mortgage payments were due.  
He slowly slid his arching back down the pole and landed on his heels. They were only 4 inches, because he’s tried 6-inch but it only resulted in him nearly twisting an ankle. He had a personal goal of working up to them.  
He walked towards the end of the stage to his audience, slowly making his way onto all fours and crawling to the men who were eager to touch him. He was only inches away from the person at the very front, and lip-synced the lyrics from the slow song blasting through the speakers.

‘I’m living my best life, come inside  
We could fuck all night, then get high’

The man put a 20 dollar bill up to his pouting lips and he bit down onto it, trying not to think about all the germs and putting up his front.  
He felt hands behind him stuff multiple bills into his ridiculously tiny black jean shorts, and deciding he wanted the audience to feel more tempted to tip, he rolled onto his back and continued to lip-sync the sultry lyrics, lifting his long legs straight up into the air whilst crossing and uncrossing them.  
As expected, bills from various men around him flew down onto his body. He gave a big smile to the faceless figures looming on top of him, some truth to the expression due to his glee from recognizing a hundred dollar bill flowing down onto his half bare torso. He never wore super intricate outfits for his performances, so for his top he opted for a black crop shirt that was a bit loose on him so he could actually perform, but still showed just enough skin for good tips.

Nothing was hotter than money to him.

He rolled back over onto his stomach and arched his back as he lifted himself back onto all fours, ass first. He moved to sit on his soon-to-be bruised knees with the move he was planning on doing.

He gathered some of the bills in his hand and waved his glowing (sweaty) face with them, and did one of his signature floor moves of spreading his knees and putting them back together, bouncing off of the floor; the motion looked as if he was riding someone. He kept lip-syncing to the lyrics with a face that just screamed “fuck me” without saying anything.

He heard a man near him groan loudly and shout how pretty he is, and he didn’t pay too much attention because the audience members that decided to participate without tips weren’t interesting to him.

He stood and slowly swayed his hips as he stepped towards the pole again. He climbed it effortlessly, using certain abilities of his to make it look like he floated up to the top. He particularly liked this ability for this job because it prevented him from getting arms that were too muscular for his taste.

He used his toned thighs to hold onto the pole in a sitting position as he let his torso fall back. He then kept that position as he held onto the pole with his hands and let his legs spread away from the pole and, upside down, did a split in the air. He swung his spread legs down and the motion sprang his torso back up. He began to spin around the pole, getting more speed as he kept going and slowed down again as he unwrapped his legs and did a vertical standing position, still mid-air on the pole. He spun slowly and lifted and lowered his body with his arms as he made each turn. He spread his legs and did the same move as he spun, slowly lifting and lowering his body with his arms. He was very thankful for the powers he used in his advantage that kept him from tiring out too quickly.

He slowly spun down the pole and the song ended. He blew a kiss to his faceless audience, panting and face flushed with exhaustion. Even though the moves he did weren't the most complex, the heat of the club definitely gets to him by the end of his performances. He waved his face with his hands as he exited the stage, heading straight for this room the size of a shoe-box where he could collect himself with the other dancers of the night.

Because the club never hired strippers or dancers to have a regular position, there wasn’t a need for separate rooms. The rule was: if you decide to get on stage, you come back here and someone will collect the tips you made and bring them to you. It was a great situation for him since there wasn’t a set schedule of when he needs to go to work, it was just a matter of how much he needed that money. He was able to get by dancing once or twice a week with the tips he made.

There was one couch and two separate chairs for the dancers to rest until their tips were collected and distributed to them. And it looked like the boy had to stand for a while since all spots were taken.

“Celeste Saint”

A dancer sitting on a couch in the room who was previously chugging an entire bottle of water stood and tiredly made her way to the door, smiling since the work she did for the night finally paid off.

The man, who insisted we called him the Money Man but we just call George, handed her a large grocery bag filled to the brim with bills she earned from the night. She sat on the floor in a corner and dumped out her money, counting out what she made.

God that really was the best part of all of this.

The boy took her previous spot on the couch and grabbed a bottle of water, downing it gratefully. He sat patiently as more and more people’s names were called. He felt very comfortable being a dancer at this club. The owner is gender-fluid and bisexual and has no problem with who wants or needs work at the establishment, and especially doesn’t tolerate harassment from the audience. It truly felt like the perfect job for him that wasn’t really a job.

“Mirage.”

He got out of his head and stood from the couch, excited to count what he got. He was handed a grocery bag that he noticed wasn’t as filled as some of the previous dancers and felt a sense of disappointment in his gut. He sat back down on the couch and counted his earnings, only to realize that even though there were fewer bills, there were plenty of $10’s and $20’s, two $50’s along with a single $100 bill.

'Damn, people felt really generous,’ he thought to himself, ‘Especially whatever crazy people gave me fifties and even a hundred bill.’

He only started dancing for the past month and a half, so he admitted he wasn’t the best at his work. Yet. He definitely wanted to improve with money being his main motivator. In the end, he counted almost $500 dollars from performing only 4 songs. It was the best he’s done! Even though his morals sometimes came to the question, where he’d have nights laying awake and feeling ashamed of what he did for money, once he actually got paid all of that flew out of his mind.

He went to the private backstage bathroom and, luckily enough, a dancer was just leaving the single shower they all shared. He eagerly undressed and washed away the sweat and glitter off of his body, as well as scrubbing the makeup on his face. He usually just stuck to highlight on his cheeks and nose, a light lip stain, and either mascara or eyeliner. Today he just wore mascara, and that was easier for him to get rid of in a shower compared to eyeliner, where he definitely needed makeup wipes for that. He remembered awkwardly purchasing the makeup at a drugstore and the cashier just looking at him with judgement, and then coming home to practice with youtube video tutorials.

He laughed at his memories of himself only less than two months ago. He was so closeted at that point that he tried being a stripper solely for women, but eventually realized how uncomfortable he was with himself acting so masc.

His first performance at this club was hilarious, he let a makeup artist at a MAC store in a different town do his face and honestly looked like a drag queen who tried over lining their lips for the first time just to look like a clown. He wore just shorts and some tiny kitty heels and more-so walked around the pole rather than spin on it, never mind climb it. He only made $37 for 2 songs, and looking back he felt like that was way too generous for that performance he gave.

He laughed again to himself as he turned off the shower and dried himself off. He changed into a large red hoodie and some blue jeans, grabbed his bag of money, and left the club.

It was only a little past 1 AM when he was walking home, and feeling nervous about getting mugged and losing the money he made, he decided to go intangible and fly home. He floated to his room and tossed the bag of money onto his desk, ready to give $400 to his mother tomorrow and keeping the remaining $80 he made for himself.

He went downstairs to find his mom in the kitchen, sitting at the table with her head resting atop. He slowly shook her awake, but that didn’t matter as she jumped awake, sitting up with a bill stuck to her forehead. The sight would be funny if it wasn’t for the fact that money has been such a problem since his father passed away.

“Oh! Danny, when did you get home?” She felt embarrassed at the situation she was caught in and pulled the bill off of her forehead, looking at her son for his response.

“Only around half an hour ago,” he lied, “I ran into a friend after my shift and we got some fast food before I came home. Sorry I lost track of the time.”

His mother thought he worked at this high-end, organic foods grocery store on the outskirts of town. It was a great cover-up since he knew his mother couldn’t afford the groceries there and wouldn’t bother to come and visit or check up on him.

“That’s okay sweetie, i’m just glad you made it back home safely.”

Her eyes slowly started to close again, but she shook herself awake again to talk to her son some more.

“Danny-“

“How about we wait until the morning to catch up? You really should go to bed, mom.” Danny interrupted with care. “I’ll make breakfast tomorrow so don’t worry about waking up earlier for that, okay?”

His mother sighed, stood up, and hugged her son. “I’m so lucky to have you, Danny. I’m sorry I can’t be better for you.”

“Mom, it’s really no big deal. And with everything that’s happened, none of this is your fault. You’re an amazing mom and i’m happy to help.”

She held him with her hands on his shoulders at arms length to look at her son’s face. She pushed hair out of his face and did a tucking motion behind his ear, even though his hair was too short for that.

“I love you, baby.”

“I love you too, mom.”

They hugged one last time before she tiredly walked upstairs to her bedroom that had a bed much too big for her. She wished the love of her life could fill that space again.

Danny looked down at the bill his mother was stressing over, and it was from Jazz’s university for her first month of housing.

‘Damn, $800 a month?!’ he looked at the bill with wide eyes, ‘that just seems excessive.’

He knew that going to university would get people more secure and higher paying jobs afterwards, but how much was that worth when you spent that good pay on debt? He couldn’t let his mother take out a bank loan for this, he just didn’t want any debt for his mother to deal with.

“Well I guess I’ll be going to work tomorrow night,” Danny sighed to himself, “and the night after that…and the night after that..” Maybe he could work for two weeks straight and raise up as much as he could and then have a week break, and go along that schedule. It’d be really, really exhausting but it was something he was willing to try.

He went back upstairs and took off his shoes and jeans, just leaving him in boxer-briefs and his large sweater. He fell back onto his bed, his stomach growling almost immediately.

‘Ugh, I wish I actually got food before coming here. I’m too tired to get up.’

He fell asleep with an empty stomach, aching muscles, and a worrying mind. Danny dreamt of his family months ago, happy and not in financial distress, and his father still being alive.

 

His phone alarm blared into his ears and he promptly threw it across the room, covering his head with his pillow. After 5 minutes, he was fully awake from the alarm still going off.

“I should’ve turned it off before throwing it” he grumbled to himself into his mattress. Danny sat up, his hair a bit of a mess, and stretched his arms up. He sighed heavily before putting his slippers on and dragging himself to where he threw his phone.He finally turned off that stupid alarm and looked at the time. 6:35 AM. That definitely gave him enough time to make something for him and his mother and get ready for school.

“Alright..” he mumbled to himself, looking in his closet, “what to wear..”

He looked through his racks of shirts and sweaters and decided to put on an oversized black v-neck and some skinny, ripped blue jeans. He slipped on his white vans and looked at himself in the mirror.

‘Gay ass…'

He went to his bathroom to pee, brush his teeth, and fix his messy hair. Thank god he showered last night, he couldn’t imagine having to wash off all that body glitter on a time-limit in the morning.

He brushed through his thick eyebrows that he recently plucked just the other day and then decided to risk putting some liquid highlight on his cheeks. It was one without glitters and that just made his face look dewy. He put much-needed concealer under his eyes to cover his now forming dark circles.

‘They’re gonna get worse these next few weeks’ he couldn’t help remembering.

He put on some red-tinted chapstick that was still pretty light-weight and barely there. After looking in the mirror for a while longer, he was pleased with his work. He looked healthy and not sleep-deprived. Maybe a little slutty, but just the teeeeensiest bit. He smiled and decided to put a little highlight on the parts of his collarbone that were popping out of the v-neck. Just for fun.

“Okay, I look gay but probably only other gays would notice…hopefully,” he talked to his reflection.

It was a very natural look, it just looked like he had a youthful glow to himself.

He walked back into his room and pulled his fake ID out of his jean pocket from yesterday, putting it in a track bag he used for the club. Just in case someone caught him with a fake and questioned him.

He was 18 and in his second month of senior year, but to even enter the club you had to be 21. However, he would definitely admit that he’s used that ID for some nights of getting absolutely wasted, or stoned if he flew out of town to buy weed in a legal state. That was more rare though, since flying so far really lowers his energy. He just didn’t trust the weed in his town, if it wasn’t legal who knows what you’re smoking?

‘Great, now I want a joint,’ he thought to himself after thinking about his fake.

He grabbed his school backpack and the wad of cash he put a rubber band around earlier, heading downstairs.

He kept his backpack on as he began to prepare for breakfast. He took out a loaf of bread, two eggs from the fridge, and an apple. They didn’t have much.

He took out two slices of bread and used a cookie cutter to make a hole in each piece. He placed them on a pan for them to toast a little before cracking an egg into each of the slices’ holes.

It was an easy recipe he found on youtube from those vlogging, perfect rich people from LA.

After flipping the toast, he let the eggs cook a little longer while he cut up the green apple into slices. After he was done cutting up the fruit, he plated the egg-toast-thingies with half of the apple slices on each plate. He put them on the table and poured himself and his mom glasses of milk.

As an afterthought, he used the cut out circles of bread to make a small jelly sandwich for lunch later.

“Okay..” he sighed to himself and looked at the time, “7:10..I got around half an hour before I should go to school.”

He was on his way upstairs to wake up his mom before running into her in the corner.

“Oh! Excuse me, son!” his mother laughed, kissing his forehead before going into the kitchen. She smiled widely at the breakfast prepared and sat down in front of her plate. “Thank you so much, Danny, come sit and eat with me.”

Danny sat across from her as they dug in, and from how little food their was it didn’t take them long to finish.

“So, how has school been?” His mother asked before drinking some of her milk.

“It’s been okay. Maybe a little harder than last year.” Okay, it was definitely harder than last year. Why on earth did he have to take calculus? He was anticipating a class like that in college, and that was if he even decided to go.

“I’m really sorry to hear that, are there any tutoring programs through the school?”

“Not unless we pay for it.”

Silence fell between them for a minute or so, not knowing what else to talk about until Danny’s phone rang with another alarm.

“I’ve got to get to school.”

“Okay,” his mother sighed, stacking their plates and cups to put them in the sink, “I love you. Don’t be afraid of asking your teacher for more help.” She kissed his cheek and walked over to the sink.

Danny left the wad of cash he made on the table for his mom to find before leaving the room and going off to school.

Meanwhile in the kitchen, his mother finishes the dishes and stacks them on a drying rack. She turns around and her eyes bulge at the stack of money on the table. Her son was too generous.

Even though she felt conflicted, she sat and counted out the money. It was the perfect amount for the remaining cost of mortgage this month. This new system of Maddie and Danny splitting all the bills in half felt really conflicting to the mother, especially as she remembered how late her son came home yesterday. And the money coming to her in cash was also a bit off-putting, who gets paid without a check or direct deposit these days? Maybe he just took cash out of his account. However, these thoughts didn’t stop the grateful tears from streaming down her face. She didn’t deserve her amazing son.

Danny got to school 10 minutes before his first class would start, and that gave him time to cram studying and doing homework he just didn’t have time to do. Yes, 10 minutes was definitely not the best amount of time for all of that, hence his trouble in school right now.

Danny felt a sense of dread as the bell rang, he only had five minutes to get to his first class. He went to his locker to stuff his backpack inside, grabbing his calculus textbook and notebook, and his pen case filled with pens of different colors, because why not? Holding his materials for the first (and most awful) class, he speed walked down the halls. He got to his class a few seconds after the bell rang, and his dumb-ass teacher had the nerve to get mad at him for it. It wasn’t even 10 seconds. He just…he hated his teacher!

He sat in the back, not wanting any interactions with the other students and especially not his mean-ass teacher. He had no homework to turn in and rolled his eyes at his teacher’s glare directed at him. Danny just opened his notebook and used his fun colored pens to doodle. He drew out little patterns on his paper and, occasionally, some notes from the class that were a little useless since he more-so cared about how nice his handwriting looked instead of what the lecture’s main points are.

‘I should just drop this class and switch to Statistics’ he thought to himself before the door slammed open, hitting the wall loudly enough to make the teacher jump and drop his whiteboard marker.

Danny looked up and his mouth nearly dropped as the hottest guy he’d ever laid eyes on just fucking hulked into the classroom. He eyed his ridiculously muscly body, his arms were huge and he most definitely had a six-pack underneath that shirt.

‘Holy shit, if he’s in this class i’m staying. I’ll just fail I don’t even care, fuck school'

“Sorry i’m late! I couldn’t find the class. I just transferred, i’m so sorry!”

‘Oh my god, his voice is so low, I can’t deal with this I think. Ugh and why is he being so cute?’

“I don’t care, if you interrupt my class like this again you’re getting detention, understood?” The fuckshit teacher lectured the new kid. “Find a seat.”

The new student looked around the room for a seat as the teacher continued his lecture, promptly ignoring the young man.

Then, the blonde made eye contact with Danny, who couldn’t help but wink and smile at him.

The new kid looked away immediately and found a seat on the opposite side of the room as Danny, who pouted to himself.

‘Man…it was really worth a try.’

Danny looked at where the new student was sitting and decided to write a note for the hell of it, and crumpled it up into a ball before throwing it at the handsome student’s head while the teacher was distracted.

The student turned to see who threw the paper and made eye-contact with Danny again, who mouthed “open it” with a sweet smile.

The blonde nervously straightened out the crumpled piece of paper to read the note written in pink ink.

‘I’m Danny, what’s your name? :-)’

The student hesitantly wrote out a response and threw the ball back at Danny, feeling grateful for the students who weren’t telling on them.

Danny smiled widely just from the idea of the guy responding to him. He knew how desperate he was being but how could he care when this boy was just so hot?

He giddily straightened out the paper and read,

'We’re in class, pay attention.’

Danny rolled his eyes and ripped out a new piece of paper a little too loudly without noticing, and scribbled out a new note. What he didn’t know was that his teacher was going down his aisle’s desks to pass back graded quizzes.

“Daniel Fenton.”

Danny stopped writing and without looking up, shut his eyes and sighed to himself for getting caught.

“Yes, sir?” he asked sweetly.

“Please hand me those notes you’ve been writing. Now.”

Danny, with shaking hands, slowly handed him the note he passed to the new student as well as the new one he was going to pass. He was nervous about how his teacher would react to the new note he wrote.

‘Don’t be such a nerd, who would wanna listen to this stuffy old guy anyways?’

“Daniel…you will speak to me after class. And Dash,” he turned to the new student. At least Danny now new his name! “You as well. This is unacceptable.”

Danny felt bad for getting the new kid, Dash, in trouble for something only he did. But, now he could put a name to the cute student.

‘I can tell he transferred, no one from this town could be that hot.’

The bell rang after half an hour before Danny realized that his quiz was never handed back to him, and that just made him even more anxious.

“Well sir,” Danny stood in front of his teacher with Dash after the rest of the students went to their next classes, “what did you want to talk about?”  
Danny hated his teacher as much as the man hated him, but that didn’t stop him from smiling as sweetly as he could to get out of trouble.

“Daniel, you actually did better in last week’s quiz than the week before.”

Danny’s eyes widened in disbelief, “Really?!”

“Oh yes,” the teacher gave a big smile before glaring, “you improved from getting an F to getting a D minus. And seeing how today’s class went for you, I think I know why this is a problem.”

“Dash,” the teacher startled the new student with his strong voice, “Your grades in math and science were impeccable from your last school, and since that you were trying to get Daniel to stop passing notes I know you’re well-behaved.”

Dash and Danny looked a little confused, not knowing where this all was going.

“Dash, you will be Daniel's tutor for at least the remainder of the first semester. If his grades do not improve, you don’t need to continue for the second semester. If you do this, you will receive more extra credit assignment opportunities than the rest of your peers.”

The teacher took a deep breath before continuing, "And Daniel, if you agree to this, I won’t give you multiple week’s worth of detention for not only disturbing my class, but also for disrespecting me. And, who knows, maybe you can pass my class with the help.”

Danny…was definitely in. This guy would tutor him with no cost and his grades could improve, but also he was definitely nice to look at. And he wouldn’t get in trouble for today! A win win win for him.

“I wanna do it!” Danny said excitedly. He looked to the new student, who looked more annoyed than anything, and rolled his eyes before nudging his arm to maybe convince the larger student to agree.

“I guess I can do that. And if I don’t want to do it anymore next semester I don’t have to do it?” He asked the teacher just to be sure.

“Yes, you have my word.”

“Then I can do it. And my parents won’t know about me getting in trouble?”

“You didn’t even get in trouble,” Danny interrupted and rolled his eyes yet again. This guy was a real goody-two-shoes.

“Please just go to your next classes, I’ll write you both a note for being tardy.”

The two students exited the classroom, Danny followed Dash by his side just to talk to him a little longer.

“So what’s your next class, Dash?” Danny really put on his sweet voice.

Dash looked like he’d really rather not respond but then realized he had no idea where he was going, and needed help from Danny.

“I have English Literature with….Lancer my schedule says. But I don’t know where it is.”

Danny took the schedule from the top of the other student’s books. “We have another class together! I’m in Government with you. I have these other classes but for different periods. I can show you around today if you’d like?” Danny put the schedule back on the pile of books, “To repay you for that tutoring.”

‘There’s other things I could do to repay you too. Let’s just go on a date’ Danny thought to himself.

“If you can show me where my classes are, that’d be great. But I have to drop these off in my locker first.”

Danny followed Dash to where his locker would be and was glad to find that his own locker was just around the corner.

‘It’s like fate.’

Danny quickly got out his materials for his history class before meeting with Dash at the boy’s locker again.

“Follow me!” Danny chirped, grabbing the larger student’s arm and pulling him towards where Lancer’s class was. He knew he didn’t have to touch the other student to show him his class, but he just wanted to feel those ridiculous muscles. And god, was this boy ripped.

They got to the closed door of the class and Danny let go of the boy’s arm before leaning against the wall.

“I can come back here and show you where your next class is if you’d like?” Danny asked with a smile on his face, looking up at the boy through his lashes. Something he learned how to do from his work was how to make another person feel….generous you could say.

Dash felt flustered as the other student was obviously looking at him up and down, checking him out, and for some reason said that he’d really appreciate Danny’s help.

Danny pushed himself off the wall and made sure to brush his shoulder against Dash before leaving.

“See you later!” the boy smiled at Dash before going off to his next class.

“What a welcome...” Dash mumbled to himself before going into his classroom, not as nervous as he was with his first class since he felt protected by his tardy slip.

Danny was smiling widely to himself as he made his way to his next class, he couldn’t believe how bold he was being but he just got lucky with this new boy obviously being non confrontational. The worst rejection he’d get most likely wouldn't result in him being outed and beaten up, and that was good enough for him.

He wasn’t even using his powers, but it felt like he was floating.

 

Dash didn’t know how to feel about this school. Or this town. He felt so anxious with how much he stood out and was just in general more noticeable to his peers. And his first class started out awfully, he felt like he was going to have a panic attack with just the idea of being late, but how his teacher reacted? And how Danny got them into that situation later on? He was losing it. It would’ve been nice if his family moved into a big city where schools don’t have the time of day for focusing on a new kid, but no. His parents wanted change. To be fair, he wanted change too, he wanted less attention on him so he could go about his life in peace. But, he didn’t think that’d be a possibility here.

‘Especially with that Danny talking to me, I can’t even have a fresh start by going back into the closet.'

Now, Dash knew that forcing yourself back into the closet wasn’t smart or healthy, but with his last school’s reaction to their quarterback being caught making out with this nerd he used to bully back in freshman year, all hell broke loose. And that was in a big city, now he was in a small, most likely conservative town. Maybe he could just stay friends with Danny (or any other cute boy he encounter) at least until the end of the school year, and who knows, maybe he’d be comfortable dating a boy in college?

‘I don’t know why i’m thinking that far ahead, i’m just tutoring the kid for Christ’s sake.’

A part of him wanted this class to be over with so that he could meet the boy again. Looking back, he was hoping that Danny didn’t see him as being rude, he was just being panicky and didn’t really know what to do. Ugh that was another thing, does this town really care about mental illness? This school probably didn’t have counselors that knew how to talk to kids about anxiety or having panic attacks. He just…maybe he needs to find a therapist outside of the school. Yeah, he could make some phone calls today and figure that out, because this move was seriously stressing him out.

The bell ringing snapped Dash out of his thoughts and he looked down at his notebook to see that he spaced out and stopped writing notes halfway through the class.

‘Man, I wish I could have a note taker for my English and History classes. I don’t know why its so hard for me to focus on literature. To be fair, it might be the teacher.’

Dash gathered his materials and headed out the door, only to see that Danny wasn’t there. He felt that it’d be rude if he didn’t stick around to wait for the boy, and he didn’t know how to get to his classes, so he decided to wait.

Then, everything was lit green and he felt extremely cold all of a sudden. Weird, it might be the AC.

“I’ll have your head, halfa!”

“You wish I’d give you head, old man!”

Dash heard the commotion in a different hall along with students screaming in terror. Was there an intruder? His eyes widened in fear, it was his first day! What luck he had!

“Look out!”

Dash looked up when it was too late and was knocked on his ass. He felt shaken and looked up.

“It’s Phantom!”

“Danny’s gonna help us!”

“I love you Ghost Boy!”

What.. is going on?

“Sorry about that,” Dash saw who was speaking to him finally, it was as if they just appeared suddenly. It was a boy with white hair and striking green eyes. He looked down to see that the boy had no legs, but a….floating tail instead?

“I haven’t seen you here, are you new to the town?”

‘Wow, even this dude who’s probably not human recognizes that I’m new.’

“I-I….Watch out!”

Dash grabbed the boys shoulders and rolled them to the other side of the hall, some sort of laser was going to hit them! Are you kidding me?!

“Are…are you okay?” Dash looked down at the boy he hovered over. He knew he was heavy and he basically put all of his weight on the little thing.

“Yeah…” the boy looked up, a weird smile on his face. “I gotta go uh, you know, save the day and all. Thanks for saving me!”

The boy literally. Disappeared.

“Skulker come out you coward! Afraid I’ll just kick your ass again?”

He heard the voice taunt in a different hall now. How did he..get there so quick? Since when were ghosts real? Why did no one tell him about this before he moved here!

His curiosity got the best of him and somehow beat his anxieties, and he turned the hall. There was the ghost boy, flying! In midair! He was dodging blows from this guy bigger than humanly possible, but couldn’t dodge when the bigger ghost, Skulker he heard the ghost boy call him, put the him in a tight hold. He grabbed both of the boy’s cheeks with a large hand condescendingly.

“You put up a really good fight halfa, it’ll make this all the more worth it when I finally have you. What should I do with your body? Put your head on a mantle? Should I gut you and fill you up with cotton and make you my masterpiece? There’s just so many options…I know, why don’t you pick?”

Dash was severely disturbed and his eyes widened in pure terror with the threats he heard.

“Why don’t you fuck off!”  
Skulker laughed menacingly, his expression turning more dark really quick, “You’re gonna wish you had a choice when I’m done with you..”  
What skulker didn’t know, was than the boy's height allowed his legs and feet to be at the perfect position for….

“OOF!” Skulker gasped, feeling out of breathe all of a sudden and let go of Danny, holding onto his now injured crotch. “You little..Agh!”

“I can’t believe you, out of all the things I could’ve done to beat you that was all it took? You’re stupider than I thought,” the ghost boy brought out what looked like a thermos,”Bye old man! Beat ya next time!”

And with that, the cap of the thermos was opened and Skulker was sucked into it. The students came out of the corners and their respective hiding places once they knew it was safe.  
Dash’s ears hurt from the cheering from his peers, but it was hard to focus on that when the ghost boy was flying up to him.

“Are you okay?” he asked Dash.

“Me?! Are you okay? You look hurt..” Dash eyed the boy’s bruised cheeks.

“Oh, don’t worry, that’ll heal pretty quick, “he smiled at Dash.

“What’s your name? If you have one I mean.”  
ghost boy laughed, “If I have one? Shows what you think of me,” he teased. Dash looked embarrassed and was about to retract his statement before the ghost boy interrupted him,”My name is Phantom. I’m glad your safe.”  
Dash couldn’t get his head around the fact that he was talking to a ghost, and that this ghost had a name.

“It was nice saving you, but don’t you have to get to your next class?”

“Oh my god!” Dash remembered, “Sorry, I got to go, I was supposed to meet up with a friend!”

 

——

“Danny!”  
The boy looked up at Dash and gave a stunning smile that almost made Dash not see the bruises on the boy’s neck. Almost.

“What happened? Are you okay?” Dash looked at the blue and purple marks and couldn’t keep his eyes off.

“Skulker got mad at me being in his way and just threw me,” Danny covered his neck self-consciously, "kind of a normal thing out here, new kid,” he tried to give a convincing laugh. “Come on, let me show you your next class, do you need to go to your locker first?”

Dash felt disturbed by how dismissive Danny, and he assumed the other students at the school, was being about his injuries and what just happened. But, he ended up just following Danny to their lockers. And then before he knew it, they were at his classroom.

“Yoo-hoo,” Danny waved a hand in front of Dash’s face, “you there?”

Fuck, Dash dissociated.

“Yeah, sorry. I’m just freaked out by what happened, I can’t believe ghosts are real.”

At that, Danny gave a little laugh, “They’re everywhere around here, luckily there are ghost hunters to keep everyone safe.”

“You weren’t,” Dash looked at Danny’s injuries,”you got hurt.”

Danny looked like he didn’t know what to say, so in the end the boy decided to change the topic.  
“So you’re in art? You’re lucky, I tried transferring to this class this year but they told me I couldn’t have the same extracurricular every year of high school. Anyways, I’ll see you during lunch?”  
Dash knew the boy didn’t want to dwell on the ghost subject so he just went along with the conversation.

“Yeah…will you meet me by the door once class is finished?”

Danny smiled warmly, “promise,” he stuck out his pinky. Dash felt his face warm, and linked his pinky to Danny’s. He didn’t know why he thought it was so cute but it was.

“I’ll see ya Dash!” Danny smiled and waved at the boy. Dash waved back but didn’t know if Danny saw it since he was rushing to his own class.

‘Fuck!’ Danny went into the boy’s bathroom feeling angry with himself, ‘ I can’t believe I put concealer on the stupid bruises on my stupid cheeks and didn’t even see what happened to my neck. Fuck!’ The boy locked himself in a stall and took out his handheld mirror. He felt frustrated as he swiped his concealer onto his neck and tried his best to blend the makeup with his finger, but it wasn’t enough. He sighed angrily and shut his mirror compact. After putting his makeup away, he decided to just ditch his class and fly home for a turtleneck. There was no way to hide this shit otherwise.

‘Man, a cute outfit….just wasted.’

Danny became intangible as he flew above the city, and even though the sight was beautiful he couldn’t help but think of the faceless audience he performs for. Who knows which of these homophobic fucks secretly gets off to him, who knows which person tipped him that hundred.

He quietly tiptoed around his room, in case his mom was home he didn’t want her to know he ditched. He grabbed his only turtleneck that was black and extremely thin. It was obviously made for fashion and not practicality. He flew up to his roof with the shirt because he wouldn’t want his mom hearing him and feeling disappointment from her son being a bad student. He tugged on the turtleneck and tucked it into his jeans.

‘There, I bet I still look pretty cute.’

He flew back to his school right after the bell rang. He felt extremely rushed and overwhelmed, speed walking to Dash’s class where he said he’d meet up.

He saw Dash waiting by the door, checking his phone with a bored face.

“Dash!” Danny was panting, out of breath, “H..hi…”  
Dash hadn’t said anything yet, he just stared at the boys new outfit.

’That looks way too good on him…Shit did he say something? Dash snap out of it!’

“HI! I uh, I mean, ahem, hey.”

'Fuck.'

Danny noticed Dash’s stares and felt a burst of energy and confidence surging through him.

“Hey yourself.” Danny smirked and decided to get a good hold of Dash’s muscular arm, “I think you should walk me to my locker.” He blinked up at the blonde, seemingly innocent, “I need to get my lunch."

“Yeah..let’s uh, let’s go!” Dash felt his body wanting to get closer to Danny’s and, at the same time, he wanted to avoid that as much as he could.

‘Come on Dash, you finally have a chance at a new life, don’t lose this now.'

Dash watched Danny take out a brown lunch sack that looked hardly filled up, and hoped that whatever was in there was filling enough. It differed majorly from his lunch that consisted of a foot-long sandwich, a protein bar, an apple, gatorade, and some chips. Then again, maybe he ate a lot since he was just generally bigger than Danny, and most others he knew.

Danny secretly eyed the other boy’s lunch jealously, wishing he could eat that much. Ugh, he just remembered that he needs to pick up apples and more milk from the grocery, they were running out at home.

They sat in the corner of the lunch room, Dash’s choice that Danny didn’t mind at all. Danny took his small sandwich out of his lunch sack and took a bite, he had an appetite but it felt like his stomach didn’t know how to hold food anymore. He put his sandwich down to look up at and talk to Dash, who was currently scarfing down a third of the foot long in one bite. The blonde looked up at Danny and immediately felt embarrassed, putting his food down and using a napkin to hold in front of his stuffed mouth so the other didn’t have to see the half-chewed bite poking out.

Danny smiled at how awkward and cute Dash was being. He didn’t know the boy but it was as if he was out of character. Just from looking at him, Danny thought Dash would immediately buddy up with the students at the jock and cheerleader table. Hell, he thought Dash looked like he would beat his ass if he found out how much Danny wanted to at least date him.

“I just realized,” Danny started, “you don’t have my number.”

The boy pulled out a sharpie from his pocket he made sure to keep on him since their first class of the day, just in case this would happen.

“Give me your arm.”

Dash felt conflicted, this cute boy wanted to give him his number but he felt like it would be a dangerous decision on his part.

Danny felt impatient and just grabbed one of Dash’s arms across the table. He rolled Dash’s sleeve up and felt giddy looking at the muscles uncovered. After allowing himself that little bit of distraction, he wrote out his number in the best handwriting he could down Dash’s forearm and even added a heart at the end as an afterthought.

“You don’t need to call or text me if you don’t want to, but the option’s there.”

Dash felt warm and found that he just didn’t know what to say.

“I’m gonna fill up my water,” Danny announced and left the table. Dash was left alone, so he swiped his food over to his left, and let his head fall onto the table.

“Why is he so cute?” He mumbled to himself.

 

The end till next chapter, danny will strip again, also song in the beginning was Miami by Tommy Genesis.


End file.
